


What's it gonna be, Dirk?

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Being unsure, Friendship, Meeting for the first time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-02
Updated: 2013-01-02
Packaged: 2017-11-23 09:49:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/620792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the eight kids first meet, Rose can see that a certain Strider is worth being interested in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What's it gonna be, Dirk?

The first thing that I saw that alerted me that the alpha players had arrived wass after I gave John and Jade a big hug, wrapped in a circle next to Dave. When I pulled away and chattered animatedly about all our adventures in the past three years towards the boy in blue, the sky above us filled with something other than an empty expanse of blue. A large gate, just like the ones we leapt through when playing in our own half of the session, opened up above us in orange while contrasting dramatically against the blue of the sky of Skaia. When Dave noticed my face had changed from delight to confusion he looked up into the sky and nudged John and Jade. The four of us stood in silence to look up at the spinning gate, before three others popped up in a circle around us. Behind us our troll friends began to mutter in wonder about what was going on, but the four different colours were all too familiar with us. The colours of our guides. 

Before we had any time to brace ourselves for the impact of what might follow- although we already knew- the four gates gave one final spin and dropped four new players from each one and disappearing from sight. A small black-haired girl in tan. A taller boy in an appalling cream outfit- with a cape none the less. An even taller blonde girl in navy. And finally a boy in maroon with a pair of rad as hell shades. We stood in silence and they followed suit, until the tall boy in cream screamed out "Grandma!" and sprinted towards Jade with all his might. She squealed in turn before running to meet him and jumping into his arms, where he spun her around. From there the short girl in tan followed suit and ran towards John wrapping him up in a big hug. I looked at Dave and smiled at him, letting out a large breath of many things. Relief. Nervousness. _Happiness._ Dave nodded at me and before I knew it he had flash stepped away to wrap his arms around the boy in shades. I stood smiling at the two's reunion and before I knew it there was a high pitched screech next to my ear and a pair of thin arms wrapped around my torso. I was lifted into the air and spun around, much to my surprise, before being set down. 

"Mom!" The girl set me down and gave me yet another hug. "It's so great to actually be able to talk to you for once! Every time we met up in the dream bubbles some stupid shit happened and I didn't get a chance to talk to you or even get to know your name- what _is_ your name by the way?" 

I giggled and opened my mouth to respond, before she stopped me and blurted out "Rose!"

"Huh?" I rose an eyebrow and she nodded animatedly. 

"Your name is Rose! Because if I had a kid I'd totally name her Rose." I blinked at her before laughing and nodded. 

"If I had a daughter I would name her… um… Roxy?" Roxy's smile grew even larger before shrieking out "Yes!" and grabbing my hand to drag me over to where Dave stood with his brother. 

"I guessed her name~!" She sung out and I laughed, giving her a small hug. While he wasn't exactly the mother I remembered I was still happy with having her be with me. Not as a mother, not as a teammate, not even as just a friend. As a sister. As Jade and John walked over with their respective grandparents Roxy pointed out the names of all her friends. 

"That short lil' cutie is Janey- my best friend in the entire world and a great baker. The tall guy with the doggy girl is Jake but speaking of which what is with those ears they are rad as _fuck_ man!"

"It's… a long story." I muttered with a roll of my eyes. 

"And then there's Dirk!" She continued, gesturing dramatically towards the boy next to Dave. I bit my lip and nodded, averting my eyes away from him to point out Dave, Jade and John. 

"Hey you know, we should all add each others chum-handles on pesterchum in case we get separated or something." Jade suggested, and everyone else nodded along. 

"Mine is gutsyGumshoe." Jane said, and Jade rose an eyebrow. 

"Whoa that's so cool, we have the same initials!" She walked over to Jane, and the two started talking about their chum-handles and why they even chose them in the first place, giggling along. The remaining six of us looked at each other before Jake filled the silence. 

"I'm golgothasTerror?" He said questioningly and John perked up. 

"My chum-handle was ghostyTrickster, but I changed it to ectoBiologst because of those stupid trolls." The two boys smiled and began to talk about some useless movie that didn't matter at all. Dave looked at Roxy, Dirk and I, and then at the prospit dreamers. 

"Well if it's Egbert-Harley -"

"Egbert-English and Harley-Crocker, actually, But go on." Dirk corrected, making Dave roll his eyes. 

"Whatever. All I'm saying is that I don't think it'll be Strider-Strider here." He said, before adding out of spite "If that's even your name." 

"Well I don't know about you super serious Striders and shit but mine is tipsyGnostalgic." Roxy said and I froze. Dave contemplated the idea and walked off with Roxy giving Dirk and I a knowing look behind his glasses. 

Looking at Dirk in detail and up close I could see that the game had been kind to his physique. The four alpha players had been playing the game longer, and that must have matured them at least a bit. Even in a pair of poofy pantaloons he managed to make them look good. 

"So, your name's Rose?" He asked, and I nodded.

"Rose Lalonde, a pleasure to meet you Dirk." I gave him the best smile I could and nodded. 

"Ahaha man, I was talking to Dave about you and he said something about you being super serious. I called bullshit though, because anyone "super serious" would screech at their mother-child-ecto family like you did." He said, and at this I blushed in embarrassment. 

"Now what does that say about you, I wonder." I began, and he looked down at me with a puzzled look. 

"When you first saw Dave you neither screeched or stood stock still, you casually walked towards him while he ran. Anyone could understand that this was Dave showing his side of how he missed you- or at least your adult form- as well as his more childish side. But for you that doesn't show anything about your relationship with your older brother- that is assuming the relationship with Alpha Dave was that of a brother-"

"I never met my bro. He died fighting the batter witch before I was born." He swallowed, and I froze and went quiet. 

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know." I looked down, flushing red in embarrassment and just stupidity. 

"Nah don't worry about it Rose, it's okay. I guess it's impossible for me to miss him that way. But I've got Dave to hang with now, and you and your other friends. It's all cool man, honestly." He said. I stayed silent, looking down in shame and feeling Dirk's eyes watching my head. When I couldn't take the feel of his glare anymore I looked towards where Dave stood with Roxy. 

"Let's go talk to those two." I said, straightening my back and walking towards the other derse dreamers with Dirk following behind. 

"And then there's Kit-cat and he's just the cutest lil' thing, getting into all my food. Also Martini and Martini Junior are bros and they're always getting into my booze it's hilarious man! And-"

I blinked at her while she ranted on and on about cats, until soon enough she noticed that the two of us had arrived. 

"Rosey! I was just telling Dave about all my cats, I've got a whole lab full of 'em at home! Wanna hear about-" 

"No she doesn't, she just came over here to tell us it was time to go show you guys the meteor." Dave said, sounding exasperated. I glanced at him and then Roxy before nodding and stepping around them and walking towards the meteor, calling to the others that it was  indeed time to call it a day. 

\----

A few hours had passed since the Alpha kids had landed with us, and since then the eight of us had spent time together with the trolls as well as each other. As time pressed on we slowly began to disband: John and Jane went to the kitchen to cook something for us to eat; Dave and Dirk decided to test their skills and have a strife match outside; the trolls left to mess around in the lab; Jade and Jake left to do 

god knows what. That left me alone with Roxy to talk about wizards, cats and of course alcohol (to no one's surprise.) For the next hour and a half we sat curled up on a couch sitting across from each other discussing and laughing with each other. John and Jane would come in to leave us a plate of cookies and comment on how silly we were acting and how to control how much Roxy drank, while Jade and Jake would also dash in periodically for something in the room. 

But after another hour had gone by the door opened again but instead of a revealing a troll or a black haired teen, Dirk and Dave stood under the door frame. Their hoods were down; their hair was messy and they stood with their sleeves rolled up and cuts and bruises lined up their arms. Roxy smirked at all of Dirks cuts, as it was obvious that Dave had come out of their strife matches victorious. The two Striders walked into the room, Dave with an obvious limp, before flopping down between Roxy and I on the couch.

"How was your strife, Dirk? Got creamed by your younger brother, I see." Roxy laughed. I smirked at him as well, giving Dave a high five for his win. 

"Well I see Dave didn't get out scratch free." I said, and Roxy contemplated the idea. 

"He fucking dislocated my knee!" Dave nearly screeched and Dirk laughed.

"Stop being such a baby it wasn't that bad." 

"It fucking was, maybe you've never dislocated anything but it hurts like hell. Bro dislocated shoulder once when I was ten and I couldn't do shit for like a month and a half."

"Sounds likes something I'd do to my younger brother, so yeah that's believable. Go beta me."

"Oh shut your damn mouth. Maybe I'd fucking assassinate the president, but that makes it no less believable."

"Actually-"

"Just can it Dirk." 

Roxy and I looked at each other over the two Striders and rolled their eyes. 

"So I need something to fix my fucking knee." Dave said, hoisting himself up. 

"Ooo I know the best thing that'll help!" Roxy said, leaping up from her spot on the couch. She stood next to Dave, putting her arm under his shoulder and helping him limp out the door. I turned my head to the two and Dave paused to look at her, raising his eyes in a way that I couldn't tell if it was meant to be questioningly or suggestively. 

"Try not to get him too drunk." Dirk called after her. Sitting next to Dirk I stayed silent, and soon enough he did too. 

"So how did your strife go?" I asked, attempting to break the silence.

"Pretty great. He's a good fighter, I'll give him that." Dirk replied, nodding his head. "Did you and Rox have a good time talking?" 

"Yeah, we have a lot of shared interests. I enjoy talking to her." I answered. Dirk nodded again in agreement. From there we sat in silence again. From my spot on the couch I looked at his face. He was looking down at his hands, with his shining orange eyes just barely visible behind his shades. His lips were thin, and I noticed that he was lightly biting his bottom lip. He had a light cut trailing down the side of his face, that was obviously fresh and from his recent strife. As I watched one of his eyes twinkling he suddenly turned to look at me, causing me to jump. 

"Sorry," He said, jolting from my surprise as well. I blinked a few times and nodded. We sat there in silence again, looking each other in the eyes. I shifted in my seat, curling my toes. He coughed, but unlike the other times we descended into an awkward silence he didn't turn away. Slowly and without breaking his gaze I shifted my legs out from underneath me so they rested on the ground. My hands sat on either side of me, gripping the cloth of the plush seat cushions. Slowly, I shifted towards his body until I was sitting right next to him. 

Still sitting in silence he began to lean towards me, and I did the same. As we inched closer and closer to each other my eyes fluttered closed. My mouth dropped open a bit and soon enough I felt his lips press against mine. I felt my fingers grip the edge of the couch a bit tighter, and then loosen considerably. My eyes flew open, as did his. We both pulled away from each other, shifting backwards a little bit. 

"Well then," I muttered quietly, looking away from him a bit. He coughed.

"Yeah, um, wow." He replied, looking down at his hands. The two of us sat in silence for a moment, before I looked up at him. 

"This may seem like a terrible thing to say at a time like this but there's a girl named Kanaya- you met her, didn't you?- and she's lovely and all- although I'm not implying you aren't- but you know how things can be and I just… I really like her." I blurted out quickly. Looking up at him I saw him let out a breath that I wasn't aware he was holding. 

"There's a thing with Jake… well it's complicated but yeah me and him." He said. I took in a deep breath and nodded. 

"Right, okay." I said, letting out a laugh of relief. Dirk joined in, shifting away and turning towards me.

"But you know, Kanaya can get pretty frustrating sometimes. Dating an alien can get hard." I joked, and Dirk leaned back and nodded. 

"Oh I know what you mean. Jake can be annoying as hell." He said with a laugh.

After about half an hour Dave walked into the room to see us sprawled out across the floor, both nearly in tears with aches in our sides. Dirk's glasses had been taken off and were set down neatly on a table. The pillows that had once been sitting on the couch were strewn across the room, and a pile of books that had been sitting on a shelf had toppled onto the floor. I rolled around on my back as Dirk did an imitation of Jake.

"Yup tally ho!! Gentlemen must be GAY with each other! Gay is happy! Ho ho ho! Great scott we're acting a little bit GAAAY here aren't we old chap?" 

"What the fuck is going on here." Dave said. I threw my head back, laughing manically. Dirk sat up and looked at Dave, shrugging. Dave gave a huff and turned around, limping back out into the hall way. 

Dirk leaned back again, turning to look at me. He then blew up his cheeks and went cross eyed, making us both fall back onto the floor again.

\----

It had been approximately 3 months since the end of our SBURB session. Soon after we met the alpha kids we entered a final battle where we all managed to emerge alive, but just barely. From there we entered our new world, but chose to spend time within the worlds that we had explored so much over our game. My favourite to spend time in was my land, alongside Dirk. Equipped with our weapons, the two of us would sprint along the sandy dunes of LOLAR, competing against each other or sometimes just having fun pushing ourselves to win. We would climb up trees, strife with each other, fight the imps or just going swimming. 

As I sat down on a small hill one day to take a rest, Dirk approached me, running up his katana in hand. As he neared closer I reached for my needle-wands. However at that moment he flash stepped directly in front of me before bending and doing a flip over me. I turned around quickly to see him land with a thud on a small marble imp. He turned to look at me, offering me a hand. I took his in mine and stood up with my needle wands in hand before turning to see a hoard of imps coming to surround us. I turned so we stood back to back. Turning my head I glanced at his face out of the corner of my eye. He nodded, and the two of us leapt up in the air. Dirk did a flip before landing with each of his feet on a different imp, while I landed on a larger one and stabbed it with my needle-wand. Dirk and I looked at each other, giving each other a small smirk.

"You up for a little competition, Rose?" He asked, and my eyes gleamed.

"It's on, Dirk."


End file.
